APPENDIX, No. II. 401 



and afterwards on the voyage, he took by means of a small 

 net, (which was always suspended over the side of the vessel) 

 several specimens of a new species of Ocythot, which were 

 swimming in a small argonauta, on the surface of the sea. 



On the 13th of June he placed two living specimens in a 

 vessel of sea water; the animals very soon protrufled their 

 arms and swam on and below the surface, having all the actions 

 of the common polypus of our seas ; by means of their suckers, 

 they adhered firmly to any substance with whicli they came in 

 contact, and when sticking to the sides of the basin, the shell 

 might easily be withdrawn from the animals. They had the 

 power of completely withdrawing within the shell, and of leaving 

 it entirely. One individual quitted its shell, and lived several 

 hours, swimming about, and showing no inclination to return 

 into it; and others left the shells, as he was taking them up in 

 the net. They changed colour, like other animals of the class 

 cephalopoda : when at rest the colour was pale flesh-couloured, 

 more or less speckled with purplish; the under parts of the 

 arms were bluish grey; the suckers whitish. 



The Ocytho'e differs generically from tlie polypus, in having 

 shorter arms, with pedunculated instead of simple suckers ; the 

 superior arms too are dilated into, or furnished with, a wing- 

 like process on their interior extremities. 



All the internal organs are essentially the same as in the poly- 

 pus, although they are somewhat modified in their proportion ; 

 but as these diflTerences may be the result of the contraction 

 caused by the spirits, in which they are preserved, it may be 

 more prudent not to dwell on them. Two characters, however, 

 Avhich I could not discover in the polypus, may be mentioned, 

 namely, four oblong s])ots on the inside of the tube, resembling 

 surfaces for the secretion of mucus ; two inferior and lateral, 

 and two superior, larger, and meeting anteriorly. On the rim 



